Apparatus for producing feather fibres



9 7 M. s. MALTENFORT 2,809,400

APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING FEATHER FIBRES Filed July 23, 1954 4Sheets-Sheet 1 Fig.1

Martin S. Molten for! INVENTOR.

Oct. 15, 1957 M. s. MALTENFORT 2,809,400

APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING FEATHER FIBRES Filed July 23, 1954 4Sheets-Sheet 2 Marrih S. Malren for! Y INVENTOR.

Oct. 15, 1957 M. s. MALTENFORT APPARATUS FOR PRODUCING FEATHER FIBRES 4Sheets-Sheet 5 Filed July 23, 1954 Martin S. Maltenforf INVENTOR.

BY all to. @S s APPARATUS non PRODUCING mama FIBRES Applieation July 23,1954, Serial No. 445,259

3 Claims. (Cl. 19-4) This invention relates to new and usefulimprovements in apparatus and methods for producing feather fibres andis a continuation-in-part of my copending application Serial No.267,796, filed January 23, 1952, now abandoned.

An important object of the present invention is to provide a machine forproducing feather fibres which is constructed and operable toeffectively shear and tear feathers placed therein without chopping andpulverizing the feathers so as to provide a product containing only asmall percentage of sharp quill particles and dust.

Another object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus andmethod for producing feather fibres by means of which the percentageyield by weight of fibres from a given weight of feathers is many timesgreater than it has been possible to obtain heretofore by conventionalapparatus and methods employed for producing feather fibres.

Another object of the invention is to provide a novel apparatus andmethod for producing feather fibres by means of which a product ofconsiderably higher quality than heretofore is obtained.

A still further aim of the present invention is to provide an apparatusfor producing feather fibres that is simple and practical inconstruction, strong and reliable in use, efiicient and durable inoperation, inexpensive to assemble, disassemble and service, andotherwise well adapted for the purposes for which the same is intended.

Other objects and advantages of the invention reside in the details ofconstruction and operation as more fully hereinafter described andclaimed, reference being had to the accompanying drawing forming parthereof, wherein like numerals refer to like parts throughout, and inwhich:

Figure 1 is a side view of the hammer mill forming part of the presentinvention;

Figure 2 is a plan view of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is a front elevational view of Figure 1;

Figure 4 is an enlarged vertical sectional view taken substantially onthe plane of section line 44 of Figure 2;

Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 3 but with parts broken away andshown in section for the convenience of explanation;

Figure 6 is a perspective view of the hammer holder used in theinvention with a hammer pivotally attached thereto;

Figure 7 is a vertical sectional View taken substantially on the planeof section line 77 of Figure 6 and showing a portion of the screen unitunder the hammer, and

Figure 8 is a diagrammatic view, partly in section and partly inelevation to show the entire apparatus forming the invention.

Figure 9 shows a modified hammer unit.

Referring now to the drawings in detail, wherein for the purpose ofillustration, there is disclosed a preferred embodiment of the presentinvention, the numeral 10 2,809,400 'Patented Get. 15, 1957 icerepresents generally a feather fibre machine made according to theinvention and having an inlet 12 at its upper end portion and an outlet14 in its lower end portion and at one side.

The housing 10 is supported upon a suitable frame 16 having a powermeans, such as an electric motor 18, mounted thereon. The armature shaftof the motor is coupled to one end of a driven shaft 2t) that isrotatably supported in bearings 22 and which shaft, 20, extends throughthe housing 10.

A suitable number of collars or sleeves 24 are held on the shaft 29 byset screws or the like. Each of the sleeves fixedly supports a pair ofrings or flanges 26 having circumferentially spaced apertures 28. Theapertures in one ring of each pair register with the apertures in theother ring of each pair and registering apertures receive pins 3t) thatextend through the transverse sleeve portions 32 of hammers 3 The heads36 of the hammers are provided with smooth surfaced ribs 38 and roundedouter edges 40 for the purposes hereinafter described.

A screen 42 is removably supported within the lower portion of housing10 by any suitable means. Screen 42 is constructed or woven from heavyround wire to form a lattice. The wire intersections are filled withmetal, as at 4-4, to provide a screen having entirely smooth surfaceswith no spaces at the crossings of bars or rods which would accumulatefeathers. This construction of the Wire screen is necessary because ofthe pressure of feathers being driven across a regular wire screendrives fibrous material between pairs of wires forming the intersectionsand the pressure between the wires is strong enough to trap materialbetween the wires so that the fibrous product extends into and coversthe open area of the screen to an extent that such a screen becomes soclogged in a few minutes that fibres cannot pass through it. Inaddition, the pressure drop is so great that the passage of air throughthe machine is almost stopped.

However, by galvanizing or using a similar process in which the wovenwire screen is dipped into a fluid material which subsequently hardens,the intersections of the wires are coated with the material which formssmooth unbroken surfaces at the intersections of the wires therebyeliminating open spaces at the junctions of the wires so that thefibrous materials do not become caught or trapped between theintersecting wires, and the open area of the screen does not clog. Forexample, woven wire screen galvanized as described above ran for aperiod of eight hours without clogging, while an identical woven screennot so treated clogged and became unuseable within only five minutes.

in accordance with the present invention the shaft 20 is driven torotate the hammers 34 in the counterclockwise direction with respect toFigure 4 as indicated by the arrow and in order to increase the shearingaction on feathers entering the housing 19 through its inlet 12, thereis provided a smoothly ribbed concave 56 at the upper Wall of thehousing. By providing this smoothly ribbed concave 55 at the upper wallof the housing, a substantial shearing and reduction of the feathers andquills introduced into the machine through inlet 12 is accomplishedbefore the feathers and quills are caused to traverse the screen section42 which acts not only as a sieve to screen out a substantial portion ofthe feathers after but a single pass through the machine, but also actsas a rough shearing surface by virtue of its coarse woven construction.

The concave 56 may be removably secured to the housing by fasteners orform an integral part of the housings removable top wall. The ribs ofconcave 56 are spaced radially outwardly from the hammer heads 36 andthe screen unit is also spaced radially outwardly from the hammer headsto reduce pulverizing of the feathers to the feed chute and pass intothe mill chamber.

- 3 a minimum while providing shearing action.

The outlet 14 of the housing is connected by a suitable coupling to theintake side 46.0fa suction fan unit 48. This fan unit may be of anyconventional form involving a propeller 50 driven by a motor .52. Thefan unit '48 also includes an outlet 54 for attachment to a conduit in amanner presently to be described. The outlet end '54 of the fan unit 48is connected to the inlet conduit 58 of a Willow-typeirotary sifter 68of known structure. This sifter includes an outlet conduit 62 that iscoupled to a ceiling condenser 64 also of'known structure. An exhaustfan unit 66, of any suitable type is connected at its intake side to theoutlet of the condenser 64 and the outletof fan unit 66 extends to adust and air settling room or. cyclone (not shown).

In practical use of the present invention, the upper end of a verticallyinclined guide chute or ramp is attached to the upper inlet end ofhousing and the lower end of the chute is disposed adjacent a pile offeathers.

Air and feathers enter the housing end system through the necessarytearing 'or shaft 2t? is driven at high speed by the motor 18, theT-shaped hammers 34 rotate counterclockwise within the chamber tocirculate the feathers therein. The fast moving feathers are shearedacross the surface of the liner 56 and the Wire screen unit 42 until thefibres are torn loose from the quill portion and the quill is rolled andcrushed until splintering results and a fibrous material is formed.

The shape of the hammer tips or heads 36 permits the As the hammer headsto exert and maintain a heavy pressure on the feathers as they shearacross the concave 56 and screen 42, and the fan' unit 48 maintains astrong draft through the screen to pull the fibres or sheared feathersout of the mill housing as soon as they can pass through the openings inthe screen unit 42. The strong draft created by fan unit 48 prevents therecycling of fibres which would reduce the capacity and fibre length.

The described features of construction and arrangement are important toprovide a machine and method which operates efliciently andsatisfactorily to produce feather fibres. Thus, by reason of the smoothrounded ribs on the concave member 56 and the outer faces of the hammerelements as well as the uniform undulations afforded by the wovenwire'mesh screen section, no sharp edges exist within the machine withthe result that a chopping action on the feathers is substantiallyeliminated .and there results rather a shearing of the feathers.Chopping is to be avoided because it produces a large number of smallsharp pieces of quill and a large quantity of dust, both undesirable. Asdistinguished from this, the shearing action obtained in applicantsapparatus operates to reduce a large percentage of the quills to fibreswhich can be collected and used along with the feather fibres.

Furthermore, by causing the feathers to be first sheared over the ribbedconcave 56 the'feathers and their quills are pretty well reduced tofibres before reaching the screen against the wall of the circularchamber where they are shearedagainst the ribbed concave 56 and then thewire screen 42. In addition, the hammers tend to compress the rotatingbed of feathers against the concave 56 and screen 42 and, therefore,increase the amount of shear.

The free swinging feature of the hammers permits the thickness of thebed of feathers to vary without afiecting to any great extent thecapacity of the machine, the quality of the product or'the powerconsumption. For example, as the thickness of the bed of feathersincreases the hammers are forced backward in the trailing direction toincrease the clearance between the hammer tips and the screen, but thepressure exerted by the hammers on the feathers continues to remainapproximately constant.

The broad rounded heads on the hammers provide large surfaces by whichpressure is exerted against the bed of rotating feathers withoutchopping or cutting the feathers, and the corrugations on the hammertips permit the rotating hammers to get a grip on the bed of feathersand force them through the machine with resulting increased capacity andefiiciency of operation.

All materials passing through the screen 42 are carried to the rotarysifter 60 in which any hard quill particles are removed. The siftercomprises a cylinder 69:: having a perforated bottom 6% in which anagitator 69c rotates at a moderate speed. The heavy quill particles arethrown against the inside'of the cylinder 600 by centrifugal force andcirculate until they fall through the perforations in bottom 6%. Thefibrous product which is discharged from sifter 60 is almost completelyquill free.

The sifted material leaving sifter 6% is then'drawn to the ceilingcondenser 64 which removes the air and dust and drops the fibres into abin (not shown). Condenser 64 is a perforated power rotated drum 64awithin which internal suction is maintained by the draft fan unit 66.The fiber-dust-air mixture is blown against the cylinder 64a 'by the fanunit 48. The air and dust are pulled through the perforations incylinder 64a and the larger fibres form a mat on the outside of cylinder64a.

As drum 64a rotates, the fibrous bed passes under a compression roll 64band at the bottom of the cycle a battle breaks the suction and the fibrebed drops off. A rubber fingered beater 64c knocks off any fibres whichcling to drum 64a.

The ceiling condensenand sifter are commonly being manufactured by theProctor and'Schwartz Company of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, therefor,the specific construc tion of these elements 'does not form a part ofthis invention, nor is the present invention intended to be limited tothe structure-shown-and/or described for the condenser and sifter units.V

The feather-fibres produced by the present apparatus are a class ofsoft, fibrous, resilient materials which are uniform in color,apparently homogeneous, and are not easily recognizable as being derivedfrom feathers. This process converts the bulk of the feather structureinto section so that a large percentage of feather and quill fibres willbe produced by a single pass of the feathers through the machine asdistinguished'from a repeated number of passes of the featherstherethrough. In addition, the construction of the woven wire meshscreen section plays an important part in that the elimination of sharpangles and corners by filling in all such places in the screen sectionsubstantially prevents the building up of a bed 'or mat of feathers onthe inner surface of the screen. Indeed, experience has shown that ifsuch a screen construction is not used a mat or bed of feathers willbuild up in a very few minutes on the inner surface of the screensection thereby blocking the interstices and preventing withdrawal ofthe reduced feather and quill fibres through the screen section.

In the operation of the machine the hammers 34 function to cause thematerial to be rotated at high speed within thehousing..Centrifiqgaljforce throws the feathers out fibres of varying lengths.Even the quill portion is subjected to such stress that it is torn intofibre-like particles. The finished product contains only a smallpercentageof dust, and the few remaining quill pieces are almostentirely free from the fibrous attachments and can be removed from themain mass by simple sifting or air flotation methods.

The feather-fibres have the same chemical and many physical propertiesof wool and can be used to replace or improve wool in many applications.The soft feather fibres can also be used to improve the texture ofcoarse wools or employed in. the manufacture of wool felts or blendedwith synthetic fibres such as rayon, nylon, dynel, etc., to increasewarmth properties and to give softness to the yarns. V

Thefibrous materialproduced may also be blended with cotton linters andformed into batts on .garnett machinesfonbedding and .llpholstery purpQses. to. in reas the resiliency and loft of the finished batts andgreatly reduce the flammability.

Strong, light, fireproof wallboard materials have also been successfullyproduced from the fibrous material and inorganic silicate-type binders.The feather fibres have been used as fillers for plastics and producefinished materials having high impact and tensile strengths as well asexcellent electrical resistance properties.

The quill particles removed by sifting or air flotation I represents avaluable lay-product and can be used in the manufacture of plasterretarders and keratin, a protein which is the basis for a syntheticextruded fibre and several amino acids.

The small percentage of dust produced and collected is not a truegranular dust, but consists of tiny, soft, homogeneous fibres. Thismaterial is an excellent filler for molding compounds and produceslight-weight plastics having high impact and tensile strengths as wellas electrical resistance properties superior to most other fillers.

Obviously, the number of free swinging hammers carried by the pairs ofrings 26 may be increased or reduced. In Figure 9 the hammer unit iscomposed of spaced rings 26a between which three equally spaced hammers34a are pivotally attached.

Furthermore, while the invention has been described in connection withthe manufacture of feather fibres, the apparatus may be employedefiiciently to produce fibres from other fibrous materials such as, forexample, plant barks, jute, hemp, sisal, kenaf, cocoanut hulls, and soforth.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for producing loose fibres from fibrous materialscomprising a housing having an inlet opening thereto, a concave memberfixedly mounted in the upper portion of the housing and extendingcontinuously therein for a substantial distance from the inlet opening,said concave member having rounded smooth ribs on its inner surfaceextending in a direction generally crosswise of the housing, an arcuatescreen section of woven wire mesh providing uniform undulations on itsinner surface mounted below the inlet opening and concave member anddefining therewith a substantially cylindrical chamber having its axishorizontally disposed, the joints at the points of contact betweencrossing wires of said arcuate screen section being filled with a solidfiller whereby to eliminate any V-shaped angles or voids in the screen,to the efiect that the tendency of the passing fibers to be caught insaid V-shaped voids and to clog the screen is substantially eliminated,a shaft rotatably mounted in' said chamber coaxially thereof, aplurality of similar hammer elements pivotally connected at their innerends to said shaft at uniformly spaced points thereabout and havingenlarged head portions at their outer ends, said head portions of thehammer elements having their outer faces spaced inwardly uniformly fromthe arcuate inner surfaces of the concave member and screen section andhaving smooth rounded ribs thereon extending crosswise of the chamberand parallel to the ribs on the concave member, and means to drive theshaft in the direction which causes the heads of the hammer elements topass the inlet opening and then traverse the concave member and screensection in that order to effectively tear and substantially reduce saidfibrous material prior to reach ing the screen section.

2. Apparatus as in claim 1, the inner surfaces of said concave memberand of said arcuate screen section and the outer faces of the headportions of said hammers being free of sharp edges in all areas thereofwhich come in close proximity as the hammers rotate, whereby to avoidcutting or chopping action on the fibrous material being sheared.

3. Apparatus as in claim 1, including further means for creating asubstantial suction force at the exterior side of the screen section todraw therethrough the loose fibers produced.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS538,654 Burton May 7, 1895 834,661 Crawford Oct. 30, 1906 1,397,828Williams Nov. 22, 1921 1,419,089 Williams June 6, 1922 1,620,303 UhrigMar. 8, 1927 1,707,697 Ward Apr. 2, 1929 1,828,490 Clement Oct. 20, 19312,172,096 Alfred Sept. 5, 1939 2,367,179 Arnold Jan. 16, 1945 2,532,660Care Dec. 5, 1950

